The journey to MBE has not been without complications. Teens arrived at staggered times; some arrive in the morning and afternoon on the 30th of June, and then some didn’t arrive until July 2nd. But at last, we are all here together– 49 chanichimot (campers), 5 madrichimot (counselors), 1 rosh (head of the group), 2 security guards, 2 bus drivers, 1 full size bus, and 1 minibus.
Over the past 5 days, we have done so much– flew from halfway across the world in North America (maybe a few layovers in between) to Vienna and seen the beautiful sights, stopped at Lake Tihany, and spent a few days in Budapest which is where we spent our first Shabbat.
Chanichimot and madrichimot alike have struggled through not knowing German or Hungarian. Surprisingly just as difficult was figuring out the conversion rate from Canadian/US dollars to Euros/Hungarian forint.
Most days so far, we have had pizzur (independent) lunch, where participants get 15 euros and a designated area that they can go eat in in groups of 4 or more, and breakfast and dinner have been at our two delicious hotels, buffet-style.
So far, what I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about has been resilience. This program wasn’t what most people were planning on until just a few weeks ago- most of our chanichimot were planning to go to Israel, not central Europe. We’ve been dealing with some pretty serious heat here too- it’s been reaching over 90 degrees Fahrenheit/30 degrees Celsius. We’ve also had to adapt some of our camp traditions – the only place to have our peulot (learning activities) were the hotel lobby and a parking lot, so that’s what we’ve done. Some didn’t realize we needed modest clothing at the Dohany Street Synagogue in Budapest, so anyone without their knees covered had to wear what looked like blue hospital gowns –hilarious!
And through it all, we have had such a wonderful time. The chanichimot are just so happy to be with each other, making new friends. In our often unkind and polarized world, joy, especially Jewish joy, is an act of resistance. And I think our kids know that. We have already begun discussing shivyon erech ha’adam, the equal value of every human life, and trying to see the history we are experiencing through that lens. Today I was so struck by how engaged everyone was during the tour of the historic synagogues in Budapest — they sat in the rows asking question after question and treating each leaf on the tree of life sculpture with care; some even asked my permission during the museum portion of it to go back into the synagogue to say the Shema.
The sun is shining bright, and so is our love for each other!!!
Shabbat Shalom,
Tali Deaner (she/her); Machaneh Tavor workshop 71, Michigan
